OL Grades - Nebraska

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GFBfan

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Was finally able to get through the whole game earlier today. Here is how I saw it by half.

The scoring system I used which is the same as 2 years ago:
2 for a pancake block or making multiple blocks on the same play, 1 making their block or shielding their defender from the action. 0 for not doing much of anything but not affecting the play either. -1 Getting beat quickly or whiffing on the block attempt. I then take the total scored and divide by the number of plays. I have it broken down by half and by run/pass.

A few comments about the OL play after watching the game again.
Overall line play was ok, the biggest downfall that I saw was not playing with their feet enough. There were times they would be in position to make their block but tried to press the defender out of the way with their upper body and wouldn't bring their lower body and feet into the block making it really hard to move the defender - especially the big DL.
A few times they had trouble recognizing what player to block on a run which led to not getting proper movement or not getting to a second level defender because of it.
On pass plays it made for some missed blocks leading to early pressure on Athan. There were also times the OL would slide one way and our RB didn't do a good job of stepping up into the vacated area to pick up the free runner. With more time together I would think this will improve as the season goes on.
Having 3 first time starters and with facing a very active DL/LB group I thought for the most part our OL played ok and see some good things coming from this group in the weeks to come.

With that here are the grades I gave by half:
RUN GAME - First Half:
LT Aireontae Ersery: 62% Had one really bad play and 3 plays where he didn't do much, otherwise he played well the first half.
LG Tyler Cooper 77% He played well in the first half.
C Nathan Boe 69% These three all had no negative plays, just a few times where they didn't block anyone or weren't able to hold their ground, which happened to Nathan a few times when he was 1 on 1 with the NT.
RG Martes Lewis 69%
RT Quinn Carroll 69%
TE Nick Kallerup: 70%
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford: 57% He's never been a great blocking TE
RUN GAME - Second Half: We had 7 running plays the second half.
LT Aireontae Ersery: 71%
LG Tyler Cooper 86%
C Nathan Boe 57% Again had problems going 1 on 1 with the NT, but he does play with an edge.
RG Martes Lewis 57%
RT Quinn Carroll 86%
TE Nick Kallerup: 60%
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford: 40%

PASSING GAME - First Half:
LT Aireontae Ersery: 79%
LG Tyler Cooper 84%
C Nathan Boe 74%
RG Martes Lewis 63%
RT Quinn Carroll 89%

PASSING GAME - Second Half:
LT Aireontae Ersery: 97%
LG Tyler Cooper 69%
C Nathan Boe 90%
RG Martes Lewis 59%
RT Quinn Carroll 93%
The two guards low percent mainly had to do with the fact that Nebbie only rushed 3 guys on about 6 of the 29 pass plays, leaving one or both guys just standing there looking for someone to block. I only gave two -1 to the OL in all those 2nd half attempts and that was to Boe and Lewis once each as they flat out got beat one time each on different plays. A couple of the early pressures were due to the RB not picking up the LB. All in all, the OL really did a nice job of picking up the blitzes and or twists by the DL and gave Athan time to throw.

I have a few plays to show some of our good and bad that I will post later today or tomorrow as the endzone view from the TV feed really helps with showing what the OL was and wasn't doing.
 

GFBfan said:
Was finally able to get through the whole game earlier today. Here is how I saw it by half.

The scoring system I used which is the same as 2 years ago:
2 for a pancake block or making multiple blocks on the same play, 1 making their block or shielding their defender from the action. 0 for not doing much of anything but not affecting the play either. -1 Getting beat quickly or whiffing on the block attempt. I then take the total scored and divide by the number of plays. I have it broken down by half and by run/pass.

A few comments about the OL play after watching the game again.
Overall line play was ok, the biggest downfall that I saw was not playing with their feet enough. There were times they would be in position to make their block but tried to press the defender out of the way with their upper body and wouldn't bring their lower body and feet into the block making it really hard to move the defender - especially the big DL.
A few times they had trouble recognizing what player to block on a run which led to not getting proper movement or not getting to a second level defender because of it.
On pass plays it made for some missed blocks leading to early pressure on Athan. There were also times the OL would slide one way and our RB didn't do a good job of stepping up into the vacated area to pick up the free runner. With more time together I would think this will improve as the season goes on.
Having 3 first time starters and with facing a very active DL/LB group I thought for the most part our OL played ok and see some good things coming from this group in the weeks to come.

With that here are the grades I gave by half:
RUN GAME - First Half:
LT Aireontae Ersery: 62% Had one really bad play and 3 plays where he didn't do much, otherwise he played well the first half.
LG Tyler Cooper 77% He played well in the first half.
C Nathan Boe 69% These three all had no negative plays, just a few times where they didn't block anyone or weren't able to hold their ground, which happened to Nathan a few times when he was 1 on 1 with the NT.
RG Martes Lewis 69%
RT Quinn Carroll 69%
TE Nick Kallerup: 70%
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford: 57% He's never been a great blocking TE
RUN GAME - Second Half: We had 7 running plays the second half.
LT Aireontae Ersery: 71%
LG Tyler Cooper 86%
C Nathan Boe 57% Again had problems going 1 on 1 with the NT, but he does play with an edge.
RG Martes Lewis 57%
RT Quinn Carroll 86%
TE Nick Kallerup: 60%
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford: 40%

PASSING GAME - First Half:
LT Aireontae Ersery: 79%
LG Tyler Cooper 84%
C Nathan Boe 74%
RG Martes Lewis 63%
RT Quinn Carroll 89%

PASSING GAME - Second Half:
LT Aireontae Ersery: 97%
LG Tyler Cooper 69%
C Nathan Boe 90%
RG Martes Lewis 59%
RT Quinn Carroll 93%
The two guards low percent mainly had to do with the fact that Nebbie only rushed 3 guys on about 6 of the 29 pass plays, leaving one or both guys just standing there looking for someone to block. I only gave two -1 to the OL in all those 2nd half attempts and that was to Boe and Lewis once each as they flat out got beat one time each on different plays. A couple of the early pressures were due to the RB not picking up the LB. All in all, the OL really did a nice job of picking up the blitzes and or twists by the DL and gave Athan time to throw.

I have a few plays to show some of our good and bad that I will post later today or tomorrow as the endzone view from the TV feed really helps with showing what the OL was and wasn't doing.
Click to expand...
Thank you @GFBfan!

You should work for Coach Callahan as an analyst or something.
 






Here are 4 plays from the game where FOX showed the end zone view and this highlights some of the good and bad of the night and of the OL.
Play 1: The only running play. It's a counter play in which the RG pulls to kick out the DE and TE follows to pick up a 2nd level defender. The left side of the OL does a really good job of identifying their men, double teaming where they are able to and getting to the 2nd level defenders. The one issue with all of them is their feet don't move enough at the start of contact. The RG (Martes) does a good job pulling and staying tight to LOS and is able to tie up the DE (his feet stop on contact and then he moves them some after - would think he will get better at this with more reps). The TE (Nick) also stays tight to the LOS and gets to the 2nd level he just doesn't see or realize the a WR is taking on the safety and he misses the other safety otherwise this would have been a really big gain. I also think if Tyler slows down once he breaks through the LOS, he might be able to cut underneath NK's block and gain more yards.

Play 2: A Drop back pass. The OL does a nice job here, but the two guards don't have anyone to block and I believe one of them should have been helping Nathan on the NT, especially since Neb only rushed three. Even with that, AK got a little jittery here and if he would have just stepped up rather than tuck and run he had the slot receiver to the right come open as BSF cleared out the zone.

Play 3 and 4 are pass plays where we give up quick pressure. Once AK scrambles to avoid it and throws incomplete, then next he is sacked. In both of these plays it looks to be a communication issue between the interior OL as well as the RB. In Play 3 it appears either Tyler at LG or Bryce at RB took the wrong guy. With the way Neb lined up it looks like the OL had a call where our Tackles took the outside guys (LT took the OLB, RT took the OLB) and the two guards were to slide out to take the next player (LG on DE and RG on DE), while the RB was to pick up the ILB to the left. Bryce steps inside to do that but Tyler does after looking at the DE and that leaves the DE as a free runner. Don't know what the call was for protection so can't say exactly who missed him.
In play 4 it's a similar misread by someone with how our OL set up to protect. Similar to play 3 the Tackles slide out to take the outside man - OLB for LT and DE for RT. The guards slide to take next man - LG on DE and RG on ILB. Our center had the NT on him but he is sliding left for some reason and leaves the NT for the RG who isn't looking inside and instead is looking at the ILB drop into coverage, which causes the free runner and a sack. Again, I don't know what the protection was so can't say who missed that. Maybe Martes didn't hear the call correctly.
 

GFBfan said:
Was finally able to get through the whole game earlier today. Here is how I saw it by half.
....
The two guards low percent mainly had to do with the fact that Nebbie only rushed 3 guys on about 6 of the 29 pass plays, leaving one or both guys just standing there looking for someone to block. I only gave two -1 to the OL in all those 2nd half attempts and that was to Boe and Lewis once each as they flat out got beat one time each on different plays. A couple of the early pressures were due to the RB not picking up the LB. All in all, the OL really did a nice job of picking up the blitzes and or twists by the DL and gave Athan time to throw.

I have a few plays to show some of our good and bad that I will post later today or tomorrow as the endzone view from the TV feed really helps with showing what the OL was and wasn't doing.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the hard work and posting the info. If you can add details as to which RBs are picking up the blitz/LB and which ones are not, I'd really like to see that as well.
 

I too appreciate your work it’s so interesting to see the same people watch the game’s several times and see something so different

I also thought the MN line played well but Kane Robb on locked on was very critical of the MN line play
 

Watching those pass plays really gives insight into the quick decisions kaliakmanis has to make. Throw? run? scramble and hope someone comes open? We weren't overpowered by Nebraska, but it appears everyone was just thrown off somewhat by the complexity of their defense.
 




Very nice to see this as you know the Gophers aren't going to share their information with us!
 

The prez sez said:
Watching those pass plays really gives insight into the quick decisions kaliakmanis has to make. Throw? run? scramble and hope someone comes open? We weren't overpowered by Nebraska, but it appears everyone was just thrown off somewhat by the complexity of their defense.
Click to expand...
AK is only going to get better with reading defenses and decisions. When he does, the sky is the limit.
 

GFBfan said:
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford: 57% He's never been a great blocking TE
Click to expand...

You repeatedly say this and it simply isn’t accurate. Not sure what you’re seeing that everyone else is not. He’s one of the best blocking TEs in the country.

Per PFF:

82.5
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford, Minnesota Golden Gophers
His 82.5 run-blocking grade last year led all Power Five tight ends, while his 14 big-time blocks were four more than any other tight end in the country.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
You repeatedly say this and it simply isn’t accurate. Not sure what you’re seeing that everyone else is not. He’s one of the best blocking TEs in the country.

Per PFF:

82.5
TE Brevyn Spann-Ford, Minnesota Golden Gophers
His 82.5 run-blocking grade last year led all Power Five tight ends, while his 14 big-time blocks were four more than any other tight end in the country.
Click to expand...
He very well could be as I didn’t watch in detail last years games. 2 years ago he was not very good at it and he was better at it vs Nebraska, but still had some plays where he missed his block in the run game.
 

GFBfan said:
He very well could be as I didn’t watch in detail last years games. 2 years ago he was not very good at it and he was better at it vs Nebraska, but still had some plays where he missed his block in the run game.
Click to expand...

Got it. I see a top tier pass blocking TE. I watch every game. Usually rewatch every game since seeing them live you miss a lot.
 


The North Carolina game, they have a questionable secondary. Could the Gophers match up well to them?

For the o-line, pass protect well. Do that and lots of us would be happy.

Reduce drops. Connect on a few explosives -- and explosives may end to happen through the air, we will see.
 

At least against SC (Spencer Rattler QB), UNC's front 7 played very well. Lots of sacks (9); yielded very little rushing yardage (-2 yards total, counting sacks). UNC's secondary, which is OK, does better when the front 7 is wreaking havoc. Based on one game--against a decent opponent--UNC's defense is much improved over the 2022 version. Drake Maye actually made some mistakes ...
 
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